The spotlight of improvement following the mosque attacks has mainly been on social media, but one Labour MP wants to turn it towards traditional media.

Louisa Wall says she's been thinking about how to limit racism in the media for years now since a failed legal bid.

It comes after the Human Rights Tribunal ruled that two comics which portrayed Maori and Pasifika as alcoholic chain smokers exploiting free school lunches did not promote racial disharmony.

Wall told Heather du Plessis-Allan if the editors had a "duty of care", they may have thought harder about the harm publishing the cartoons may have caused.

She says if the law won't deal with something like that, then perhaps the editors should.

"A duty of care would put the onus on the publishers to not put it out in the first place."